Six prospective jurors’ exposure to information that defendant was separately charged with two other murders did not warrant striking entire venire or declaring mistrial; trial court’s extensive small-group and individual voir dire identified the affected jurors, and all were immediately dismissed for cause.
Supreme
Helsley v. State, No. 63S00-1406-LW-440, ___ N.E.3d ___ (Ind. Sept. 24, 2015).
Role of defendant’s alleged mental illness in double-murder was not so “exceptional and extraordinary” as to warrant appellate revision of LWOP sentence. Jury’s weighing of LWOP aggravators and mitigators is not subject to appellate review.
Layman v. State, No. 20S04-1509-CR-548, ___ N.E.3d ___ (Ind., Sept. 18, 2015).
Evidence was insufficient to convict defendants of felony murder in the course of burglarizing a home they thought was unoccupied; none were armed or engaged in any “dangerously violent or threatening conduct” that was “clearly the mediate or immediate cause” of their co-perpetrator’s death.
Sharp v. State, No. 20S04-1509-CR-549, ___ N.E.3d ___ (Ind., Sept. 18, 2015).
Evidence was insufficient to convict defendants of felony murder in the course of burglarizing a home they thought was unoccupied; they were unarmed and did not engage in any dangerously violent of threatening conduct that was clearly the mediate or immediate cause of their co-perpetrator’s death.
Clifton v. McCammack, No. 49S02-1504-CT-228, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind., Sept. 21, 2015).
Father of victim of an accident cannot recover for negligent infliction of emotional distress, because none of the three circumstantial factors were met; the claimant must demonstrate that the scene viewed was essentially as it was at the time of the incident, that the victim was in essentially the same condition as immediately following the incident, and that the claimant was not informed of the incident before coming upon the scene.